“I know we just won the group stage, but we cannot relax just yet,” Roy mentions.

“I agree, we need to keep our focus,” Liz adds.

Isabel sighs and slumps onto the chair next to Roy, “We’ll be fine, we got to the top of our group without losing a single match. We’re heading for the win!”

After winning the final group stage battle against Aquaria, we were all waiting in our rooms for a notice from the organizers of who we would be put up against in the quarter-finals.

After a couple of minutes of silence, the door receives a knock, and I’m in charge of answering the door. I open the door to find no one standing outside, but taped onto our door was the notice from the organizers. I quickly grab the notice and head back inside the room.

“It’s here,” I call out.

“Open it up, Rin.” Isabel orders as she begins sipping on a glass of water.

I open up the envelope and read the paper tucked inside.

“Congratulations on finishing top of the Group Stage!” I read out, “Summoner Isabel Virac has been placed against Summoner Luke Virac in the third Quarter Final taking place the day after tomorrow.”

As soon as I finish reading, the sound of glass shattering shakes everyone up. We all instantly face the noise to find that Isabel had grown pale with wide eyes. Contrary to her confident self a couple of minutes ago, Isabel had frozen still and dropped her glass in the process.

Liz and Hilde instantly jump to check up on Isabel while Roy and I carefully clean up the glass shards.

“What just happened?” I whisper to Roy.

“Luke Virac…” Roy sternly says, “The brother of Summoner Isabel.”

“Wait, isn’t he the defending champion?” I ask.

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Roy nods as he examines a piece of glass, “Before I, you know, died, I had heard a little about Luke Virac.”

“What did you hear?”

“He was strong and violent enough to beat the royal guards with no magic, despite coming from a family of mages,” Roy answers, “He’s a human with the strength of a Spirit.”

* * *

That night, no one had said a word to each other. After seeing how shaken up Isabel was at just the name of her brother, no questions were needed.

I woke up surprisingly earlier than the others and decided to head out to the top floor to get some fresh air.

Luke Virac, a human with the strength of a Spirit, huh?

Once I make it up the stairs, I find a familiar figure cloud watching.

“Luna?” I call out.

The Elf gets shaken up a little but manages to face me calmly.

“H-Hey Rin, you’re up early.”

“Yeah, I just needed to get some fresh air, mind if I join in?”

Luna shakes her head and pats the spot beside her.

“Your Quarter-Final match is tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah, the first two Quarter-Final matches are being played today, but we’re the third ones,” I answer as I lie down next to Luna.

Luke Virac…just how scary is he?

Roy has even heard about him before he became a Spirit, wouldn’t that make him old?

No, what if that “beating the royal guards without magic” was done while he was still young?

How have I heard nothing about him if he’s so great?

Or does nobody want to speak his name out of fear?

…

We’ll be fine, right?

I can protect everyone with my shield, right?

Isabel is fine, ri-

Suddenly, a fist to my stomach brings me out of my thoughts.

I quickly curl into a ball and begin coughing.

“W-what was that for, Luna?”

“That’s for what you did to me yesterday.” Luna pouts, “also, your face screams your thoughts. You’re worried about something, aren’t you?”

“W-was I being that obvious?”

“Painfully obvious.”

I sigh and sit up. I came here for fresh air but ended up getting devoured by my thoughts once again.

Luna looks at me out of the corner of her eyes and folds her arms, “I won’t press on about what’s got you worried, but let me just tell you one thing.”

Luna places her hand on my hand and looks me in the eyes, “I’ll be cheering for you…”

Congratulations Luna, you’ve just short-circuited my brain.

The blood rushes all over my face, turning me red as a tomato as I sit in silence. I wanted to run away and hide my face, but my body wasn’t letting me do so. It was like Isabel had put me under a command spell.

Slowly, but surely, Luna realizes what she’s done and slowly turns bright red as well. She quickly releases my hand and stands up. “W-well then, I’ll l-leave you be!”

Luna quickly runs for the stairs, but pauses once she reaches the first step, “G-Good luck, Rin.”

With that, the blushing Elf ran down the stairs, leaving my blushing self still unable to think properly.